A big post for a big race

Today was the Vasaloppet race here in Mora! There have been other races and events all week long, but today is the big one: 90km of classical cross country skiing. I have seen a few of the races this week (at least, the finish) but none remotely compare to the size of today's crowds and media coverage. With three helicopters buzzing above, TV cameras at every turn, and even little GPS chips for each racer, it was quite the experience to be a part of. The first place finisher (Daniel Thynell, 4:10:55, Swedish) came in right after noon, and there was a lot of cheering and clapping as they flew through town and under the arch at the end of the race. People didn't immediately thin out, however. The first woman finisher came only about 30 minutes later, and everyone cheered her on loudly as well. Gustav Vasa was there too (left)! I'm thinking about going back before dinner tonight to cheer on the people who have been racing since 8:00, because I know I couldn't finish this race before the sun went down myself. Still, after seeing so many skiers today, it really makes me want to try it, even though I have basically no experience.

But, as I said, the big Vasaloppet isn't the only race that goes on here during Vasaloppsveckan. Our professor Roland has completed two races in Mora, one last friday, and the halv-vasa (45km) two days ago. When he was coming into town, we all cheered him on, and as he approached us had a little 'spill.' He was fine; it was quite the memorable moment for all of us watching. My video below starts just as he's getting up, and then we give him a wreath, and he finishes the race. Two other things were funny at this point too: firstly, we had gotten everyone around us to cheer for Roland (even the Danes across the way) but also we realized that our 63-year old professor raced two long distance ski races this week, while we young college kids probably couldn't without hurting ourselves.

Yesterday, one of the students on this trip who has been to Darlana before scored us some innebandy tickets for a group of us to watch the Mora woman's team. They have some of the best professional clubs in Sweden around here, and it was great to see the game we've been playing with students in both Jokkmokk and Mora played by people who actually know what they're doing. The game is like a cross between hockey and soccer, and has 3 20-minute periods. It's hard to follow on video because the ball is small and is passed around quickly,but I tried my best to show a little clip of the action. Final score: 9-5; Mora lost.

On Wednesday, we had a huge trip around Darlana to learn more about the art culture and history of the region. Jordi Arko, a local artist, gave us a tour of Falun's copper mine, Darlanas museum (also in Falun), and his "The Red Orm" tapestry, which is the longest tapestry in the world that depicts the titled folk story. The mine, which funded the town for many hundreds of years, was what Falun was originally founded upon, but has since moved to be the cultural and industrial hub of Darlana. It was interesting to see the big pit where most of the copper was originally taken from (movie below).

Next we went to the museum, where there were many examples of Darlana's unique clothing and artwork. Many people think of Darlana as the "heart of Sweden," meaning that this region is the most traditional. The dress is very 'Swedish,' and who hasn't ever heard of or at least seen the Darlana Horses. We even saw an example of Southern Sami dress from the region, which was pretty sweet to know more about than our guide. Outside of clothing and jewelry, there was a large historical exhibition with artifacts from the late 1400s all the way up to today of things produced in Darlana, including big printing presses, photographs, an old car, wardrobes, and yes, Darlana horses. There was also some more 'modern' things there, like an artist's creative interpretation of the Darlana-horse style extrapolated to the whole animal kingdom, which was cute. There was also some older artifacts of the Norse language, like that stone with carved markings. I don't know what they say, but they're old. There was also an art gallery attached to the museum, and it featured works of both printers and a new show by 11 local female artists. Personally, I don't quite like the contemporary style, so I wasn't taken away by frosted-glass portraits and paintings, nor large tapestries with colorful designs but without pattern, but the printing exhibit was really interesting because not only were the prints nice on their own, you could also see how someone changes their template to achieve a more detailed/ accurate/ styled final product.

After Darlanas museum, we went to a warehouse where "The Red Orm" tapestry is held these days (it's resided all over the world since it's completion in 1991). Jordi Arko worked on it with a team of seamstresses to design a representation of a folk tale basically every Swede knows in a more abstract fashion, so as to not ruin the 'mental images' for them. He also made an accompanying illustration for the book itself: a hefty two-part boxed item that is filled with double- and tri- (and the occasional quad-) fold pictures in varying styles. Usually I don't think that artists can represent well other styles of art, but I was really surprised by the quality of his work. One in particular, the Viking longboat at sea, done in a Japanese style, really caught my eye. He said he put some of his old professors and friends in there as Vikings, which I thought was funny. I really enjoyed his talk and he certainly knew his stuff; he seemed to know plenty not only about the arts and culture of Darlana, but how to relate it to other places and times.

We also had an opportunity to meet a Nobel Laureate from Minnesota, Peter Agre, who won the prise for chemistry in 2003. Although we could understand only the basics of his discovery, he was a very interesting person outside of the strictly scientific sense. He runs a malaria lab in Zambia, works with a few universities, but focuses his time mostly on human rights activities throughout the world. His brother, Jim, was the house father for one of the students on this trip when he came to Sweden a few years ago, and both Jim and Peter skied the Vasaloppet today, even though both are over 60.

This clock was at the museum, and until they can but all this on a watch (year, month, temperature, hours, minutes, seconds, and some things I can't understand) I will never be satisfied.

One last thing to mention- I dyed my hair black the other day, just to do it. Now it's time to do some Sunday cleaning and washing! Happy March!